>>25623313
"We need engineers, doctors, programmers, every brave soul and every skilled person we can get. In return, we will give you a bright future, we will give you a steady job, a chance to work with experts in every field, a chance for improvement and education you couldn't even imagine. MS club, would you like to see and work on the newest protype in the military? Computer club, would you like to see a real AI work its magic? Piloting club, would you like to fly the fastest suit ever built by man?"

"So... Yeah, if you're interested in a steady job, education, working with the best of the best and saving humanity, consider joining us in the military."

You show them some slides, give them some examples of some of the work they’ll be doing, opportunities for advancement and at the end you answer some questions. You may not be the larger than life speaker your father is but you can get the point across pretty well. It was a lot like DMing, only shorter and far less entertaining.

After two hours you leave the school feeling confident you’ll be getting plenty of applications. During the car ride however, your secretary Rysis informs you of a situation.

“Commander, at the moment our barracks isn’t remotely big enough to house all the people coming in. With the new recruits and the possible returning troops recovered by Hogan and the search team, we’ll have a severe housing problem. The barracks in the HQ was only intended to house needed personnel in the case of an emergency, all the proper barracks were built in the base which I’m sure you know was razed to the ground. What should we do commander?”

The Magic Schoolbus and the Baronche can lend additional men to do certain task, however you’ll have to specify what you want to do with them so they can give you the best people for the job.

Magic Schoolbus- Crew of 80, Minimum people needed onboard is 30
Baronche- Crew of 75, Minimum number of people needed onboard is 20

You have 45 Men at your disposal
15 are the surviving HQ staff; they are needed to keep things in running at the HQ. Taking them away will lead to bad things.

10 are the members of 101st Technical Evaluation and Testing Division. They are currently working on producing the equipment you commissioned.

10 are paper pushers and green horn recruits who survived the attack. They’re currently being trained by Jack Crocker in MS piloting.

10 are people of Note
>People of Note:
Arnold Blackmarsh (Unknown, Need to speak with him)
Aunt Rysis (Secretary)
Dorthy Ann (Captain of the Magic Schoolbus)
Dr. Halsey Heart (Researcher)
Grandma Crocker (Good Cook)
Grandpa Crocker (Trainer)
Hogan Blackmarsh (Pirate Captain)
Mellis Crocker (Captain of the Camelot)
Secretary Steve (Injured-1 month recovery)
Travis Touchdown (Absent, should arrive within a day or two)

Construction Projects
>Sub-Office Cleanout and Reconstruction: 10 Hours

>Armory Clean out and Reconstruction: 14 Hours

>Lab Clean out and Reconstruction: 26 Hours

>HQ Reinforcement: 70 Hours

Equipment and Personnel Projects

>RGE-890T Genoace II Trainer x10 14 hours

>Shields, EM Bullpumps, DODS Rifles, Beam Sabers, training equipment est 8 Hours

>MS Training x10 Greenhorns/Paperpushers- 1 week

Hey, man, glad to have you back.
Just a small heads-up - archive this thing now, apparently there's some guy going around and mislabeling the threads he saves on suptg, so if you want to avoid some headaches later on, better archive this thread fast.

>>25623332
"Seriously, Rysis, stop calling me commander, you're freaking me out."
"I've no idea about the housing of our troops - I guess we could send Bob's men to fix the barracks after they're done with the sub-offices. We could take only the applications today, since we don't have where to keep the men, and begin taking new recruits in once we're done with the restoration of the base."
"Do you have any ideas?"

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>>25623332
We'll be fine for a little bit. Bob's crew will be done with the repairs within two days (unless that's supposed to measure work hours and doesn't include them stopping to sleep and whatnot). We can put them on the barracks construction after that. In the meanwhile, can we get any temporary housing built? I'm thinking something along the lines of the concrete canvas structures used in disaster relief in the modern day. I figure if we have colony-repair birdlime, we can probably rig something with tents and quick-setting polymers.

Pic related. Basically it's just a tent impregnated with cement dust, so you can soak it and have it turn to concrete. Should work for temporary housing.

>>25623625

I support this plan of action...

>>25623625
Sounds like a plan. While the HQ gets repaired, we set up some temporary housing.
The pirates and MBS crew could probably get going on that, it seems like an easy task.

>>25623625
>>25623673
We should also invest in some hesco barriers.
Hescos are really easy to set up. It's basically a big metal frame, that works like a sandbag. Unfold it, fill it with dirt, you're done.

>>25623753
Nice idea. The rookie pilots could probably use that as a small training exercise - learning to handle things in a mobile suit and all that jazz.
We have giant mechs, might as well use them.

On a side note, whatever happened to those solid cowls and anti-beam cloths we used back in Gen-1?
I mean, we had memory cloths back then (anti-beam cloth that can be programmed to have whatever texture we want) - we could use those things as an advanced cloaking or camouflage system. Just make a bunch of those, give them a space pattern, and they're invisible. Sure, you can pick them up on the sensors, but you still need to get him in sights first.

>>25623753
Wouldn't those be of relatively limited use when we're dealing with attack from giant robots? I thought those were used mostly for fortification against small arms. Well, that and flood walls. I guess we could use it for gabions, but given that Vagan suits prefer direct-fire energy weapons we don't have that much to worry about fragmentation rounds spraying shrapnel everywhere.

>>25623847

I think he is suggesting using them to create MS Obstacle courses for training the new pilots...

>>25623847
True, we'd have to scale them up.
Remember, Mobile Suits are the primary means of waging war in this setting, so there is likely a similar device at a larger scale.
However, you have a good point about the direct-fire energy weapons, I'm no physicist so I don't really know how they'd handle hitting what is basically a giant box of dirt.

>>25623847
The typical suit we're using for our troops - the Adele - is about 18 meters high, so I guess scaling them up would be a problem.
I mean, they'd soak some damage and could serve as good cover, but our enemy can fly and rain death from above, and making something of that scale is really time-consuming and expensive.

>>25623625
>>25623645
>>25623673
"It shouldn't be too hard to set up temporary housing. I'm sure we have or can buy plenty of canvas tents. Spray repair-birdlime on them, it'll harden and make them pretty solid." You suggest. "I'm sure we could get a couple of men from the Magic School Bus to get the work don't, shouldn't be too much trouble."

Rysis nods. "That should work. I'll call Captain Dorthy...you're a smart girl Scarlet..."

"I take after my Dad and my Mom. Good genes I guess."

You enjoy a peaceful ride back too base.

>>25623840
Memory Cloth still exists. It's been vastly improved over the last couple of years. Problem is it's harder to make now that it's more advanced. You don't have any on base and your machine shop can't produce the material properly. The AGE Builder can only make it in small squares and would probably be a waste of production materials with the time it would take.

>>25623910
>>25623899
>>25623847
>>25623753
You could have Bob put building a MS Training course into the building queue. It could probably help increase the quality of the training Jack can achieve in terms of Mobile Suit Training. What priority do you want it set to? After the HQ is repaired or before?

>>25624073
training course once everything is back to full functioning capacity. We don't want the new pilots going out in real suits till they have the training Simulation Courses.

>>25624073
Let Bob finish up his current work. We can split his men into two - one larger group could fix up the barracks, the other can make the training course.
Our men should begin training as fast as they could, but if that's not possible, better get the HQ running and fast.

Too bad about the memory cloth. But I guess we can make the solid cowls later on, those things were really helpful.

>>25624122
Agreed. Right now we just get things in working order. Training courses should come later. We don't even have any suits for them yet, let's wait until they have something to run the course with.

>>25624159
Well, we don't need the memory cloth to make anti-beam cowls. The original ones we had we made with ablative paint and tarps. I'm sure we can make those again. Problem is that I'm not sure how useful they'll be against the modern, higher-powered Vagan beam weapons. We've got the data for the Jilsbain (well, technically it's the Zeydra that we have, but if they're deploying them at the same time the only difference is color scheme). Can we fab up a copy of its beam gun and get the lab boys to testing AB Coating against it?

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>>25624227
I don't see why not. If I remember correctly, we still have Zeheart's suit here - we could try to make something that'd be more resilient to its weapons.
It's just that we'd need the lab operational for it, or maybe the Camelot could try that while the HQ gets repaired.

Speaking of Zeheart, is he Desil's half-brother in this timeline?
I went over the first couple of threads, and we killed Desil's father (Mr Manos) basically in thread 1, and the younger Desil didn't give a fuck about that.
And considering how Zeheart is more than 10 years younger than Desil, it'd make sense that he's his half-brother.

>>25624122
>>25624159
>>25624174
Construction Projects
>Sub-Office Cleanout and Reconstruction: 10 Hours
>Armory Clean out and Reconstruction: 14 Hours
>Lab Clean out and Reconstruction: 26 Hours
>HQ Reinforcement: 70 Hours
>MS Training Course: Postponed

After arriving back at the base

>>25624227

The "Lab Boys" and the doctors Zeek sent still haven't arrived, neither have Zalam/Euba Infantry Brigade or the MS Team. They should arrive in the next couple of hours. However you don't have a lab anymore, Bob and his men are in the process of cleaning the Lab out and are going to restore it, but you'll probably have to replace all of the equipment and get everything organized and in working order before you can do any proper testing.

However AB Cloak vs modern Vagan beam weapons could totally be done once the proper facility and personnel are set up.

Now that you have arrived back at the base what do you wish to do?

It'll be a couple hours before the requested personnel and forces arrive. On top of that it'll be a day before the majority of the construction and building projects are finished. Maybe getting some shut eye and some grub wouldn't hurt, of course if there's anything you could do it might be best to do it now instead of when the Vagan come knocking.

>>25624361
(To clarify, all of Zehearts and Desil's siblings are half-siblings in some respect. With the Vagan population and the death rate as it is, a single women with multiple husbands or a husband with multiple wives is not uncommon. Technically Desil is Zeheart's half-brother, but with the way things are on Vagan Zeheart considers Desil his full brother and vise versa. So Desil's biological father is dead, but Zeheart's isn't)

>>25624517
Well, that explains why Zeheart has such a different color palette than his older brother. Odd that they have the same last name, though. I guess the family name comes from whichever parent is genetically responsible for the most children (the man in polygny, the woman in polyandry). Though considering that the Magicians 8 are all Desil's siblings in this timeline, you have to wonder just what it is about his mom that leads to such a high rate of X-Rounders being born to her. Ezelcant would probably have locked her up for study even without the political shame of Desil's defection.

>>25624517
Ah, I see. That makes sense.
Anyway, let's see Mellis. Maybe she could finally give us some tips about being a better commander, see if Hogan found some of our men, and check on how the training is going.
We could get some grub and call Dirk to fill him in on what we've found (Leviathan making super soldiers) later on.

>>25624613
True. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up as an artificial X-Rounder (like Mellis) just so she could pop out more super-X-Rounders.
As for the naming convention, I don't know, maybe she's some nobility or something and everybody is just gets her surname as a status upgrade.
Kinda like if you married Kennedy's daughter and took her last name just so that you can call yourself a Kennedy.

>>25624613
> Ezelcant would probably have locked her up for study even without the political shame of Desil's defection
Jake's mission on Vagan just got worse.

>>25624695
You look around and find Mom taking a break from helping Uncle Jack train of the troops. She looks pretty tired, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. As you sit down she offers you a sip from her water bottle which you decline.

"Hey Mom, how's the training going?" You ask looking out as Grandpa has the paper pushers running laps.

"Pretty good. We're trying to build up their stamina a bit, a lot of them aren't really in all that great a shape. However they're pretty cooperative, not all that enthusiastic but I'm sure they'll learn pretty quickly." Mellis explains.

"So what brings you here?"

"I was wondering if there are any good tips you could give me on being a good commander?" You ask honestly.

"Well you've done a good job so far. A lot of the stuff outside of the basics is stuff you really have to learn on your own. However I will say two things. First, you need bureaucracy to run the lesser stuff properly, pay, budget, that kind of crap. Me and Jake hated it and we still do. However since we're part of an official military organization, we need it to avoid any unfortunate screw ups down the line. The paperpushers might not be pilots or fighters, but that gets me to my second part. Everyone has a part to play, so don't go making your men feel like shit because they aren't pilots."

What do you think of this advice Scarlet?

>>25625419
"Yeah, I get the feeling that budget management is going to be the bane of my existence the next few months. Aldrick didn't even leave me the password to his computer, so I still have no idea what sort of finances I have available. Not that I blame him for being in a rush. Hey, do you think Aunt Yurin knows any honest accountants? She is the executor of the Birmings estate, I figure her father would have taught her something about managing this sort of thing."

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>>25625419
"But mom, the grunts ARE the military, everyone else just exists to hand them the stick."

>>25625419
"Thanks mom. You're awesome, you know that?"

>>25625530
Seconding this.
We could also check up on grandma, maybe she could help out in the kitchen or something. Our grunts could use something tasty to lift their morale.
We could also join in with the training - we could use the exercise, grandpa's tips and we can bond with the men under our command.

>>25625623

The part about the training is true. We never actually recieved any training, just a uniform and a 'Good Luck'...
Training is a must.

Also, good point about raising moral and loyalty with mucking in with the troops. Though we should also make an effort to make frequent tours of the various sections and facilities. Maintaining a Visible presence keeps people focused and less resentful of high command...

I still think that once we have this place back up and running, we should do 'Front line Inspections', and just happen to find some Vagen forces in need of a trouncing...

>>25625419
"'Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics', huh? Too bad I'm still an amateur. What was Aldrick doing, leaving me in charge of the base here? It's not even a brevet rank, I'm a full commander now. I wasn't even enlisted yet. I think I'm going to spend most of my nights reading up on management techniques. Yay, command roles!"

>>25625727
Agreed on the maintaining a visible presence part. We're still inexperienced and came out of nowhere, I doubt that our troops trust that we're competent, so we really should do our best to earn their trust as a commander. As for Vagan butt-kicking, maybe once she goes with Hogan on a quick scouting mission - who knows, maybe he missed something. We really don't have the troops for another attack, at least not yet.

>>25625755
This too. Scarlet is the ambitious one of the Crocker kids. I can see her spending nights going over every book she can find on how to

>>25625530
"All the budget information is still buried in the ruins of the sub-office. I was told it's in a safe so it's probably not destroyed, but It'll be a pain to get everything in order and even then that thing will be my bane...you think Aunt Yurin has any trustworthy accountants?" You asked, worried about getting your financial situation straightened out instead of throwing around I.O.U's.

"Maybe, Yurin is pretty good with money considering her up bringing. I'll talk to her when I get the chance, you just focus on getting this place looking like a proper base again." Mellis punches your shoulder in a playful fashion and you punch back.

>>25625727
>>25625623
"You think I could cut in on the training? I haven't received any myself so it might do me some good. That and the men probably don't think I'm competent. It might me do some good to do this with them, earn their trust."

"Are you sure? It's pretty tough."

"Tough is fine by me..."

(Roll 1d100 vs Athletics skill. 80 or below will succeed. 1 is a critical success. 100 is a critical failure.)

Rolled 34

>>25626045
Rolling.

Rolled 54

>>25626045
"Hey, Dirk's the scrawny noodle person of the family, not me."

>>25626130
Meanwhile, aboard the Diva...
"Asemu, I suddenly want to punch Scarlet."

Rolled 10

>>25626370
Bah, how will he manage to strike her with such noodly arms?

>>25626511
By screwing with the Gawain, of course. Probably installing a boxing glove on a spring inside the cockpit.

Speaking of Dirk, it would be funny if all the girls are hanging around him simply so they could be closer to Akito and Asemu (and Zeheart).
Imagine him getting back from the mission, meeting Rena and she asks him if Woolf's kid is seeing someone.

We dead?

>>25626065
>>25626130
>>25626511
>34, 54, 10

It's a long haul and tough as hell, but you pull through and seem too impress the Paper-pushers as you play up the exhausting 7 hour training exercise as if it were nothing even going going so far as asking them "Want to go again? I could go again..." causing the 10 trainees to groan and beg 'No' repeatedly.

You feel like crap and the exercise didn't show you anything however you feel the recruits have a new respect, or at the very least a slight-awe towards you now after impressing them.

It's getting late. It's at least 11:30 and the colony has long since switched over to night. You feel tired, hungry and your sides hurt from all the running. You could chat up Grandma, or you could go to your office and get some well deserved rest.

What do you want to do Scarlet?


>Sub-Office Cleanout and Reconstruction: 3 Hours

>Armory Clean out and Reconstruction: 7 Hours

>Lab Clean out and Reconstruction: 19 Hours

>HQ Reinforcement: 63 Hours

Equipment and Personnel Projects

>RGE-890T Genoace II Trainer x10 7 hours

>Shields, EM Bullpumps, DODS Rifles, Beam Sabers, training equipment est 1 Hours

>MS Training x10 Greenhorns/Paperpushers- 1 week

>>25627428

foods and sleeps. Tomorrow will be just as eventful and hectic as today...

>>25624361
Desil's father was Mr. Manos? Was that a quest original character?

>>25627428
Oh, I didn't realize that the project times were time until completion. I figured it was the time it would take to actually do, and that they therefore added together for total time. I guess Bob's team are really good at their job. Then again, it is the 31st century. They should have really good construction technology by now.

But yeah, for now let's just rest. See if Grandma has any leftovers from dinner, then go hit the cot in our office.

>>25627695
(Yep. I don't believe we learn about ether Zeheart or Desil's parents, so I decided to fill some details in for the Quests sake)

>>25627823
You stop by Grandma, who is finishing some stuff up in the kitchen. Her face lights up when she sees you and she gives you a big hug, like all Grandma's should.

"How are you doing dear? You look absolutely awful!"

"I'm fine, I just did some training with the men and I'm tired. Do you have anything I can eat?"

Grandma laughs and pulls some soup out of a fridge. After heating it up she serves you a bowl with some nice bread made earlier that day and a glass of what appears to be some kind of green juice.

You eat up and aren't surprised that everything tastes delicious.

"Woah! Grandma what is this?"

"Tortellini soup with carrots and meatballs." She explains. "The juice is squeezed from those bizarre orange-kiwi hybrid fruits they've been throwing around."

"And you served this today?" You ask.

"Yeah. Soup is one of the best things to make if you need to feed a lot of people!" She says, serving you some more and feeding you until you feel like your about to burst. You wonder how Dad can love waffles so much when he has a mother who can cook like this.

You return to your office, satisfied in the knowledge the quality of the cooking shouldn't be an issue.

>>25627477
You decide to call it a night and go back to your office. You pass by the workers cleaning out the sub-offices and find Rysis sitting at her desk surfing through the topics on 3sama out of boredom.

"I'm going to hit the hay Rysis. Can you make sure no one blows anything or has any crazy orgies while I'm asleep?" You ask politely.

"No"

"Thanks you're a doll" You smile and enter your office, locking the door and walking over to your before collapsing onto it and falling to sleep a couple seconds after you hit the soft cushy material.

How long do you want to sleep Scarlet? Until your fully rested or only a few hours?"

>>25628108

We can spend time sleeping once everything is back up and running.
Sleep for the few hours until the new work day begins. We must demonstrate our commitment to our position and the seriousness in which we take our duties.

>>25628108
Begin reading books on how to be a proper commander until you fall asleep, and then only take a quick nap.
You're too nervous for a proper sleep.

>>25627695
Yeah, it was revealed early on (thread 4 or 5, before Jake saved Mellis by using the virus) by Gerra Zoi.
Speaking of Gerra, I think he's alive in this timeline because Grodek didn't get close enough to kill him back on Ambat.

>>25628108
Just a few hours. We can do a polyphasic sleep cycle and get a few half hour naps later in the day in between our duties. Hell, there's studies that show you can in theory get by on just a 15 minute nap every two hours, but there's also evidence that will slowly drive you insane. Still, we can manage a slightly non-standard sleep cycle.

>>25628356
Or Zoi could have died in the explosion because he didn't have time to evacuate. For all we know, he was the Defurse in the reactor chamber just like in canon. Though in that case, Arabel is probably dead, too. Poor kid, he hadn't done anything yet. Though he probably wouldn't murder Grodek in this timeline anyway, without seeing his father be killed. Not that it would matter with Grodek having been disappeared to work with Leviathan. Really, Grodek's story is a lot better in this reality than in canon. Much less chance of him being murdered in this timeline. If anyone kills him, it'll be us, and only at the end of a dramatic fight against a mobile armor.

>>25628356
>>25628161
You read some book on commanding written by some guy name Bright. Book is older then you and your Dad combined. It talks a lot about how to force people under your command to get over their personal and emotional issues through the use of physical force applied through the hand to the face or in some extreme cases, the groin. However it's heavily insisted you use some kind of 'slap'.

Falling asleep half way into reading you are woken up 4 hours later.

You get up, make yourself look presentable and open the door, seeing a very distressed Hogan.

"We have a problem"

"This better not be some jackass who got his arm cut off in the vending machine."

"Wait what? Never mind. There's a ship on approach. It's a Darwin Class vessel, looks very very old and very very structurally unstable. Somehow it didn't show up on radar until it was very close to the colony. It's too close for use to safely blast it and it's not responding to any communication attempts. What do you want us to do?"

Well Scarlet?

>>25628716
"Tell them to keep trying to maintain contact with it."
"The Magic Schoolbus should stand on standby, in case it's not friendly. I'll prepare the Gawain and come aboard the Baronche, we'll go investigate."

>>25628553
I kinda hope Zoi survived in this timeline - both the older and the younger.

The older becomes more and more vicious, and after his return to Vagan, he's stripped off all his titles and shamed in front of the entire military by the grandfather or father of that fat bastard Zanald Beihart. His old spy network remains, though (that's how Zeheart learned of the location of the hidden deserters base on Minsry) and so he wasn't executed or some shit like that.

His son becomes obsessed with regaining the family honor, and joins the military against the cursed Earthlings. He paints his new suit green (like the Defurse), and is soon labeled the Green Knight by the Vagan troops, who see him as one of their aces.

>>25628716

Time for investigation!

Ask Hogan if he could prepare a pair of squads to search the derelict. Have an MS contingent hold position relatively close to the ship encase it contains enemy forces.

>>25628716
Call Rysis just to make this isn't Travis' current ride. He is scheduled to arrive sometime around now.

>>25628910
That's also possible, but I doubt that he wouldn't at least try to contact us first.

>>25628910
>>25628801
"Hold on a minute..." You call up Rysis and ask if this is Travis's ride and Rysis confirms it's not, not remotely his ride. You close your phone and look at Hogan.

"It's not one of ours. Prepare a compliment of men to search the vessel and get your suits ready to attack in case this is some kind of Trojan horse."

"Alright. Do you want to come or do you want to observe things?

Well Scarlet?

>>25629255
"I'm coming with you. No way I'm missing out on a ghost ship - just imagine what cool stuff we can find!"
"And... yeah, make sure it's not bad news. Do we need our suits for this?"

>>25629255
"Yeah, coming along sounds good. The Gawain needs a proper shakedown flight, anyway. With the Crocker family luck, I know I'm going to wind up fighting something soon, might as well get it over with now. Who knows, maybe I'll even get to try the beam shields out."

>>25629388
>>25629304
You decide to go along and accompany Hogan to the space dock, having a trailer bring the Gawain along so you can participate in case anything happens. After suiting up in your pilot suit you take off with Hogan and his men and keep your distance to the incredibly old looking Darwain Class ship.

It's paint has been mostly chipped off apparently, it's a dull grey color and appears warped oddly in a few areas, probably from some kind of impacts. It's not new and doesn't look remotely maintained. Apparently it came in on impulse thrusters, an old interplanetary booster engine attached to it's rear end that now appears dead.

Hogan in his AGE-1 Dark Hawk and Arnold in the G-Xiphos along with three Shaldoll Rogues float silently as you watch the Shuttle carrying 10 of Hogan's men over to the ship.

"How do you want to do this Captain? Want us to board it now or do you have another idea?" One of the men ask, stopping the shuttle.

"I don't know, what do you think Scarlet?" Hogan asks.

>>25630034
Let's run some scans on that thing first. Can we see if there's anything alive aboard it, if it's engines are running, anything?
I don't want us to board this thing only for it to turn out to be a huge bomb or something.

>>25630034
Interplanetary boost? How long has this thing been drifting?

"Let's get a tug out here first and brake its momentum. I don't want this any closer to the colony than it needs to be. While we're waiting on that I want a scan on any heat sources. I'm not expecting any life support systems but there might still be active computers putting this thing on autopilot. Wherever this ship was, it's been gone a while, and I want to find any flight recorder data we can."

>>25630224
Seconding this.
As for the interplanetary boost, it may be that this ship is from the days when Mars got colonized. Maybe one of the ships that attacked the old Vagan, or something even older than that.
We find Arthur aboard and Rysis looses her shit.

>>25630267
I'm not sure how old this thing could be. Even if we're going by the Interplanetary Transfer Network orbit, the lowest-energy transfer between planets, the Earth-Mars trip would only take about three years. So if this thing is very old, that means it was left floating somewhere for a while, then recently reactivated. Or it could have been from somewhere other than Mars, but that just raises more complications. This seems rather potentially sinister to me. Then again, what's a derelict space ship without ominous implications?

>>25630224
>>25630131
"Lets get a tug to move this thing away from the colony, I'd rather not have an explosion on our hands this close to the colony" You order, Hogan relaying to get a few 'Tugboat' Shuttles to drag the ship away from the colony.

"Run some scans on this thing, I want to know if there is anything weird about it..."

The shuttle does so, passing over the ship a few times as it scans for anything useful. During their forth scan they stop over the ship for a more detailed look.

"We got a little heat, but that's mostly from the engines. There's some moderate power levels, they're spread over the whole ship though so probably on some kind of emergency power. Overall everything looks fine"

"What about the motion sensors?" Someone on the shuttle asks.

"Oh come on they have to be broken. I mean look at the hull, do you see anything moving at a-"

Suddenly, the hull of the derelict ship seems to warp into a crude fist and launch upward, smashing the shuttle backwards, sending it careening backwards towards the colony.

Then, like a swarm of locus the hull of the ship seems to come apart. It wasn't obvious, but the entire ship, or least most save for a bare bones frame at the center, was made of small individual units about the size of a person and appear very bug like in nature.

They fly off the ship, turning it into a useless frame as they collect into a thick metallic cloud of jerky, violent and very, very nasty looking machines.

What will you do Commander?

>>25630446
You called it.

>>25630550
"Why do they look like MID?"
Get out in the suits and draw their fire while the shuttles move out of fray. Alert the HQ about the situation as well.

>>25630550
What, are they mutant SID drones? Supposedly SID got more aggressive after Ezelcant tampered with it to get his tech data, so maybe in this AU it got all self-replicating, too. Or maybe it's just a new Vagan weapon. I could be entirely jumping to conclusions. Hell, while I'm tossing out crazy theories, maybe it's the ELS and we're all going to undergo Innovation.

Okay, they can't be too durable at that size, so DODS shots should be able to punch right into the cloud. Of course, they'd basically serve as their own chaff clouds as the swarm gets destroyed. But we want them to stay bunched up, if they swarm us we're doomed. Can we sweep them with beam fire from the edges of the cloud to discourage them from spreading out?

>>25630740
Maybe they are SID drones, but I somehow doubt that. I mean, his one and only purpose is to protect the EXA-DB, so sending out attack drones would only draw attention to himself, which would in turn make his primary objective harder. Or maybe it's not SID at all, but something else.

Agreed on the plan, though. We need to keep these things confined in one location, or we're fucked.
I guess DODS minigun fire would prove useful here, considering how we don't have any type of flamethrower-like weapon.
The Baronche could provide fire support as well.

>>25630713
>>25630740
>>25630853
The shuttle just crashed into the side of the colony and is stuck into the side, the crew ether dead or very badly injured, they aren't going anywhere.

The 'bugs' don't look anything like MID but they are a little similar. They look more like spiders then rolly polly's.

Your DODS and EM Bullpup weapons don't have any kine of sweep function but you work with what you have and order everyone to take evasive maneuvers and try to keep the swarm from well, swarming. You fire everything you have, your DODS Rifle, the head mounted Railgun your Gawain has and the defusing beam cannons on the shoulders.

However, as if sensing what you didn't want it to do the bugs swarm, rushing right towards you.

Things are gonna get messy...

(Well I think this is a good place to stop for tonight. See you tomorrow guys!)

>>25630853
Well, if we're going by the Memories of Sid manga, Sid isn't exactly an AI. Technically, it's control system is made from a scanned human brain, specifically that of one of the scientists who developed the EXA-DB. Which means it's entirely possible that, after being damaged, it's gone insane. Especially with its self-modification gradually altering it to a theoretical "optimal" design and warping its mentality in the process. Also, the manga shows that it will chase after the cryopod containing the designer's daughter, which Bisidian would have acquired around this point. Is there something you aren't telling us, Hogan? Something your friend Captain Angrazzo found in an asteroid somewhere?

>>25630998
See you tomorrow.

>>25630998
See ya tomorrow, man.

>>25631087
That'd make sense - Hogan's buddies found something (someone?) that SID wants back, and now he came after them.
As for the scanned brain part that was the original story - we have AIs and nanotech, what's stopping the EXA-DB from having it as well? It's quite possible that our SID is some unholy offspring of the T-1000 Terminator and the Harbinger Reaper, especially if he's gone insane with the ages, self-improvement and whatnot. Hell, he could even have the personality of that scientist somewhere in there, maybe as some sort of immortality he was going for.

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>>25626582
Oh please, Rena is clearly engineermoist for Dirk. And Asemu belongs to Scarlet anyways, whether he wants to or not. If he dies, she will hunt him down and figure out a way to resurrect his consciousness as an AI, for the sole purpose of killing him for leaving her like that.
>>25629255
>get your suits ready to attack in case this is some kind of Trojan horse
The Trojan Horse you say?!

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>>25631408
...Rena is with Jake now, right?
Why do I know he's been showing her baby photos of Dirk just so they can both mess with him later on.